1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of interactive voice response systems and teleconferencing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Teleconferencing allows three or more persons located in geographically disparate areas, whether in different states, cities, or in different offices of a building, to participate in a telephone call with one another. As businesses strive to cut costs such as travel, meals, and lodging related to “face-to-face” meetings, teleconferencing has continued to gain in popularity.
Many businesses have come to rely upon designated teleconference numbers that can be reserved for a period of use. Each participant can join the conference call, or teleconference, by calling one central teleconference number. If the teleconference number is toll-free, the participants can join the teleconference without having to pay long distance charges or other connection fees. Frequently, each teleconference in which a person is to participate is accessed through a different teleconference number. Many teleconferencing services also require participants to provide some sort of identifier before the participant can be joined to a conference call. The identifier can be a personalized identifier or can be an access code associated with the scheduled teleconference.
With the increasing popularity of conference calls, it is not uncommon for a person to schedule several different teleconferences in a single day. As each teleconference can be associated with a different teleconference number and access code, remembering and tracking such information can be a daunting, if not completely impractical, task. Other alternatives for tracking such information, for example when away from one's computer system or calendaring application, can include manually writing down each teleconference number and access code or using a personal digital assistant. Such solutions, however, can be error prone.